Research the Consequences of Middle East Conflicts (Essay Sample)

Middle East Conflicts
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Middle East Conflicts
Introduction
Many scholars perceives the Middle East conflicts as a hard one to solve but a simple one to understand since it has been a continuing phenomenon over the years. Historically, the Middle East region, traditionally known the Fertile Crescent is characterized by frequent conflicts fueled by autocratic leaders on the grounds of resources, religions, politics, and tribe. The region is set with rivalries and alliances, which has attracted external enmity from world super power nations such as Russia and the USA. Particularly, the conflicts exists as enmity between Iraq vs Syria, Iraq vs Saudi Arabia, Syria vs Turkey As well as Israeli vs Syria. Israel has been the common enemy of the other Islamic States due to her settlements, as well as her religion as the majority of the citizens are Christians. Other scholars have argued that these constant battle are fueled by the Muslims desire to see the Jewish state annihilated. These countries perpetuate these conflicts by supporting terror group such as the Assad, Shias, ISIS, and the Syrian rebels. Thus, the current paper seeks to address the overall cause of middle east conflicts and its consequences, the role played by Christianity in the conflicts, the role played by the West in perpetuating conflicts as well as the possible solutions that can end the conflicts. Further, the paper discusses the effectiveness ofnegotiations, how they have failed and how it can be improved to ensure peace is restored.
There are several reasons to the constant battle in the Middle East. Above all, the primary reason for the Middle East conflict is not political sentiments as many perceived but a religious one. The conflicting religions in the Middle East are the Jews, Christians, and Islam CITATION Jim08 \l 1033 (Carter, 2008). The Islam believes that their religion is the real and final revelation of God/ Allah, superseding all existing religions. This has triggered a high level of intolerance in the regions that sparks conflicts. The Islam perception of their religion as the most God’s most powerful caused the entire region of Middle East to be divided into two, namely Dar al-Harb’and ‘Dar al-Islam(Levitt & Ross, 2007). The former as always been considered as the region of peace and where the people and the land belongs to the Islamic forces. On the other hand, ‘Dar el-Harb has always been treated as the land and the people who need to be conquered by the Islam forces. Scramble and petition to conquer such regions have been the leading cause of conflicts as each Islamic forces wants to be the dominant group(Matthew, 2013).
Another reason for these conflicts is the battles between the Israelites and Palestine and these have become a nationalist struggle. The conflict overterritories is believed to have started in the 19 century when the Jewish captured the Gaza and West Bank to establish their homeland. Initially, Gaza and West Bank were occupied by 86 percent of Muslims, 10 percent of Christians and 4 percent of Jewish, leaving in peace and harmony(Pollack, 2004). The Jewish later battled to conquer the land despite being the smallest population in the group. The situation worsened in in the 1960s when the UN intervened and gave away 55% of the Palestine land to the Jewish(Pollack, 2004). The situation-triggered conflicts where the Palestine and other Arabs combatants attacked the Zionist forces in attempt to reclaim that land that is still perceived as the Palestine state(Tanner, 2009).
Consequences of Middle East Conflicts
In the present days, the conflicts have annihilated nation such as the Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. The wars have destabilized the economy on these regions leading to inequalities of resources. For instance, militia group such as ISIS, ASAD and Syria rebels are controlling some of the oil fields to amass wealth as a source of power to control and conquer the minority(Hovsepian, 2008). Additionally, the conflicts have created an environment of violence characterized with frequent bomb attacks and gunshot leading to an abnormal refugee crisis in Middle East. According to a report filed by UNHCR, approximately, 16 million refugees have sought asylum in Europe for the last 5 years from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. European nation such as Turkey have borne the most burden by accommodating almost 3 million refugees from Lebanon as from 2014 only(Hovsepian, 2008).
Another consequences brought by the Middle East conflicts is the destabilization of the global economy. Historically, Middle East has become the leading exporter of oil globally; thus, the constant unrest spreading throughout the regions destabilizes the oil prices making it fluctuating unfavorably(Mearsheimer & Walt, 2008). The escalated oil prices have affected production as the cost of production have increased, henceactivating global inflation. This has caused some of the bigger economies such as the US and China to impose sanctions against some of the Middle East nations such as Iran, Lebanon and Syria from exporting their commodities(Mearsheimer & Walt, 2008).
Another consequence of the Middle East conflict is the territory changes that have affected some group either positively or negatively. For instance, Israel benefited from these changes having expanded its territory by 21 %, in relation to the petition resolution boundaries(Ward, 2014). The Palestine fell victim of this changes as they lost their land to Israel and still believe that Israel have no right to occupy Gaza. However, other Arabs states also expanded their territory as Jordan captured west bank, a region that was mainly occupied by Christians(Matthew, 2013). The territory issues have not settled down as the Palestine still intend to expand their territory to boost their power and dominance in the Islamic State. Currently, there are constant partitions between Israel and Palestine over the issue of territory.
The Role of Christianity
Christianity as a religion in has a significance influence to the Middle East conflicts. Generally, many governments in the Middle East have used religion as tool to justify their authoritative and economic rationalism in the Middle East(Carter, 2008). Particularly Christianity was used as by the Israelites to revolutionize holy war. From the history, it is evident when the Papacy in Israellaunched a crusade to recapture Jerusalem form Muslim in the ancient period. This action, which was a deed of the crusade led to massive killings of the Muslims in Jerusalem. This deed was conducted for political gain and was justified through Christianity(Evans, 2012). Another factor is the differing Christianity rules and the Islamic, Sharia law when Muslims and Christianity opt into a negotiation or political decisions. For instance, Christians interpreted the “terrestrial gains made in 1967" as a section of their promised land as per the Bible(Matthew, 2013). These conflicting aspects have made it difficult to establish neutral solutions in the Middle East crisis. Thus, Christianity as represented by Jerusalem tends to symbolize the importance of religion in political aspects of the Middle East. ‘
Role of the West in Perpetuating the Conflict
As much as the most of the Middle East conflicts seems to be highly contributed by the feudal relationship between Israel Palestine, however, much of it has been generated and maintained by powerful nations such as Russia and the US. The West have found an interest with Middle East conflicts for the purpose of maintaining their economic stability as well as that of Middle East. These West nations have successful managed to control the Middle East by keeping both Israel, Jordan and other Islamic states such Iran and Qatar dependent on their support in form of arms and finances(Ward, 2014). For instance, in 2014, the US established a nuclear deal with Iran in an approach to fight the ISIS in Syria. In other words, the US made Iran her ally and gang against IS in Iraq and Syria, who were perceived as their common enemy and a serious threat (Vandewalle, 2012). Additionally, the West involvement has perpetuate the conflicts by creating enmity among the locals after their intervention. For example, Russia made treaties Iran to support the Syrian Assad regime by supplying them with ammunition and transport facilities with the agenda of opposing the Islamic state(Talmadge, 2015). Similarly, the US invasion to Iraq in 2003 left a political vacuum that triggered much chaos and violence. This saw Baghdad seeking the US help to counter attack IS In 2014.
Possible Solutions
The desire to make a the world a peaceful place cannot be attained without paying attention to the Middle East conflicts, particularly on the conflicts between Israel and Palestine. This calls for possible solutions that can help to end these conflicts. Therefore, there are two unconventional solution, namely, “Two- State condominialism” and negotiation. “Two-State Condominialism” is a name coined by Anne-Marie Slaughter, a US former diplomat and a bureaucratic(Mearsheimer & Walt, 2008). The idea behind “Condominialism” is that both the Palestine and Israel citizens will be identified according to their distinct political authorities. Under this solution, both the Israelites and Palestinians would be given the authentication to settle within the territory of the two states, thus establishing a sole, binational settlement community. This approach is perceived effective as it focuses on creating an interconnectedness relationship among the Palestine’s and Israelites settlers in Gaza, West Ban...